Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Sit back, relax and enjoy Fijitime / Feeling right at home in Bali

Arrived in Nadi, Fiji, once again :), as expected we were welcomed at the airport by live music! My pick up waited for me at arrivals and took me to my accomodation Tropic of Capricorn, also known as staying with “Momma“ (owner). Beautiful place, close to where I stayed before. Checked in, private room, pool outside, nice and quiet. Walked over to the hostel I stayed in before to say hello to everyone. Everyone remembered me (of course) and welcomed me back. It was good to be back. I was only in Nadi for 2nights, just catching up with everyone before leaving for my island trip. But was coming back to Nadi for another week after that.

Island hopping was great. I got to see more of the Fiji islands. Met an English guy and a girl on my first island, Tavewa. Stayed in Coralview resort, dormroom. What a nice place. Lots of sunbeds near the water. We went to a sandhill in the middel of nowhere for a couple of hours before the tide came in and the sandhill would dissappear. Other than that, just relaxed a lot and ate lots of myummie food. Second island was Matacawalevu, where I stayed in Bay of Plenty and I was their only guest, so special guest. Beautiful, very quiet place. Didn't do much there, it's a family owned resort so it was just me and the family (who I pretty much only saw during mealtimes). And you eat what they eat..so fresh fish and you all know how much I love fish (not..), clams the first night and white fish the second night. They gave me a house with a double bed and a bunk bed, but mostly cause of the double bed, because I was there special guest :). I had to walk up a hill to get there, nice walk through bushes and flowers. I saw millions of stars at night from the hilltop cause there was no other light and in the morning I could see the sunset from my window. I had a lot of time to think, write and for the first time since I started my trip, read my own journal and add some comments. It was really nice but I am glad I only had 2nights there. Oh and on both islands the would play drums to let you know when breakfast, lunch or dinner was served. So no need for a watch. My third and final stop was on Waya lai lai, Naqalia Resort, my favorite! Small resort, just 4houses (3bures and 1dorm) and perfect for solo travelers. They put all the tables together for dinner so a good way to socialize with everyone. The staff was really friendly and reminded me of the staff in Nadi. I did a snorkeling shark feeding trip, they fed them and you were able to touch them (white tipped sharks), played some volleyball, walked up a hill (pff) early in the morning for a sunsethike, snorkeled some more and got tricked into a church service haha, didn't last long and they sang a song so it was pretty nice. Oh and I did some weaving, made my own ring and bracelet and made another shell bracelet.

Back to Nadi, all of the staff of Naqalia told me since day 1 not to leave them and made up excuses; there's no boat going tomorrow, there's no room for you, there's a storm coming haha. I asked them not to sing me the sad goodbye song and they didn't. Met great people there!

Back to Nadi, visited Lautoka, went to see Noah in the theater there. And on most days I relaxed during the day, went to the hostel I stayed in before at night for some kava and beers and went out a couple of times. Good fun and hard to leave again but happy to see Ellen in a couple of days!

Left Nadi to fly to Sydney..where I had a 18hour layover which I decided to spent at Sydney airport. Had McDonalds for dinner, looked up a lot of stuff since there was free wifi at sydney airport and after that looked for a place to sleep...slept on the floor, hard and cold but I was tired so was able to sleep for a couple of hours. Got up around 5ish am, found a shower with hot water :), went for breakfast and walked around for a bit until I could check in...waited again at the gate until boarding for Denpasar (Bali)!!! Ellens flight was landing an hour before mine so I knew she was going to meet me at arrivals...excited :)!

Met a guy on the airplane that talked to me during the flight about traveling and stuff, which was nice since there were no entertainment screens and at the end we watched a movie on his laptop. So that kept me busy, first airplane 'friendship'.

Arrived in Bali, after customs and security check and picking up my luggage, I was going to see Ellen again, waaaaaa!! It was so good but so weird to see her again, to see her not in New Zealand but in Indonesia! But we were happy together :)! Had a beautiful, huge room and got a mani and pedi! Stayed there for a couple of nights and went to Ubud. I was only suppose to stay for 3nights, but how could I leave such a beautiful place! I felt like I came home, like I belonged. Must have been those deep burried roots I have in Indonesia :). So I decided to stay an extra two weeks and travel with Ellen!! I loved Indonesia, the people, the food, the prices, the culture, everything! We went to some of the Gili Islands, nice and relaxing. Finally got to go on a bycicle again, felt good! And went snorkeling again, a few times, WE SAW A TURTLE!! Insane, but beautiful...I was happy it wasn't right next to me though hihi. I had such a good time here that me and Ellen started talking about working here next year, so who knows, it's a possibility :)! Spent my last day and night in Kuta, loved the place and definitely need to come back and see more. Ellen and me ended our time together how we started it too in Indonesia, mani and pedi :).


From Bali to Bangkok, last day/night before flying back to Holland to surprise everyone! And what a surprise it was :)!

No comments: